Jury convicts Californa man of murdering Verdi woman

A Washoe District Court jury Thursday found a California man guilty of murdering an 80-year-old Verdi woman in 2001.

Judge Connie Steinehimer ordered the jury to return at

10 a.m. today to hear arguments about sentencing, including the death penalty, for Joaquin B. Hill, 27, who also uses the name Kiven Johnson, who was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon of a person 65 or older.

Hill pleaded not guilty but did not attend his trial, which began Monday. Three lawyers from the Washoe County public defender's office represented him.

The jury returned the verdict at 7:30 p.m.

One of Virginia Mosconi's four adult children found her dead the morning of June 9, 2001.

Laura DeMaranville testified she stopped by the house about 10 a.m. and found her mother's newspaper still on the porch and a bra on the floor outside the bedroom.

"I headed over to the bed," DeMaranville said. "I could see the back of her head was wet. I went over and touched her arm, and said, 'Mom?' There was a huge pool of blood on the floor and I screamed and went out and called my brother."

The case remained unsolved until 2005, when DNA evidence linked Mosconi's slaying to Hill.

After a Washoe County grand jury indicted Hill in April, he was moved from his cell in a California prison to Washoe County Jail. He was serving a nine-year sentence on stolen vehicle and drug charges.

Mosconi had lived alone in her Second Street home since her husband, Verdi Justice of the Peace Henry "Hank" Mosconi, died in 1980. Their daughter, Margi Mosconi, took over his seat on the bench until she retired in May 2005.

Mosconi was a meticulous housekeeper, DeMaranville said, so finding her bra on the floor sparked concern. After DeMaranville ran from the bedroom, she called her brother, Henry "Bud" Mosconi Jr., who arrived minutes later.

He testified that when he saw his mother face down on her bed, with blood in her ear and on the side of the bed, he called 911, and emergency personnel soon arrived.

David Billau, a retired Washoe County sheriff's forensic investigator described how Mosconi was bludgeoned to death.